Wednesday, July 30, 2014

RAND Improving Dementia Long-Term Care: a policy blueprint

Improving Dementia Long-Term Care: a policy blueprint is a published report from RAND looking at potential policy options for dementia in long-term care services and supports. The document primarily focuses on the social services and supports that are being conducted in the United States, but the document has international implications.

The policy blueprint is intended to assist government and non-profit organizations with a set of priorities to build consensus and establish policies, actions and performance metrics to improve quality of care and long-term care services. The authors examined the current available options for long-term care services for persons with dementia and came up with 25 priorities for care that can be summarized into five objectives.

The five objectives include:

1.Increase public awareness of dementia to reduce stigma and promote earlier detection of signs and symptoms

2.Improve access to and utilization of long-term care services and supports for persons with dementia

3.Promote high quality, person and family-caregiver-centred care.

4.Provide better support for family caregivers of people with dementia

5.Reduce the burden of dementia LTSS costs on individuals and families